John Cook, the editor-in-chief of Gawker, is leaving the news site to join First Look Media, the media company bankrolled by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
The news, which was first reported by Re/code and later confirmed by Politico, marks the second notable departure for Gawker this year. The site's viral guru Neetzan Zimmerman left in January to join Whisper, an anonymous social network startup.
Nick Denton, Gawker's founder, provided Mashable with a terse response by e-mail: "I'm going to let John Cook and Glenn Greenwald have their day." Greenwald is the former Guardian journalist whose reporting on Edward Snowden's revelations now forms the backbone of Omidyar's nascent media network.
See also: Glenn Greenwald's New Site Goes Live With NSA Allegations
Cook did not immediately respond to our request for comment, though he appeared to acknowledge the move in an exchange with Zimmerman on Twitter shortly after the report came out.
@neetzan http://t.co/M7pdUH4CUi
— John Cook (@johnjcook) March 10, 2014
First Look Media has poached an all-star group of writers and editors in recent months, including Greenwald from The Guardian, Matt Taibbi from Rolling Stone and Bill Gannon from EntertainmentWeekly.com, among others.
Reps for First Look Media did not immediately respond to our request for comment.